Hearing aid technology enjoys a long and colorful history. Early hearing aids used in the 18th and 19th centuries were often referred to as ear trumpets. They essentially consisted of a large horn, or bell, that tapered into a thinner tube for placement in or near the ear. They were large, bulky passive devices that simply increased the volume of sound and provided some noise filtering by directing the desired sound directly into the ear.
Around the turn of the 20th century, electronic hearing aids began to enter the market. These were tabletop or desktop items that were cumbersome and impractical, but they provided electronic amplification of the desired sound. While desktop devices were reduced in size over the next few decades, they were still cumbersome units and their battery life was typically only a few hours. With reduction in the size of vacuum tubes, hearing aids shrunk to the point that they were considered “pocket-sized” or “wearable,” but were still bulky and required large batteries.
With the advent of the transistor, the hearing aid shrunk dramatically. Indeed, the development of transistors in 1948 by Bell Laboratories allowed numerous improvements to be made to the hearing aid, including a dramatic reduction in size. Making use of the transistor and its decreasing dimensions, companies were able to introduce concealable hearing aids. These devices, sometimes referred to as behind-the-ear devices (BTEs), are still available today. Early examples of BTE devices introduced in the 1950's included the Beltone Slimette, the Zenith Diplomat and the Electone 600.
With continued advancements in technology, the hearing aid continued to shrink in size to become in-the-ear and in-the-ear-canal devices. Today, some hearing aids are so small that they are implantable. However, most conventional hearing aids still require a detector, such as a microphone, to detect the desired audio, an amplifier to amplify the detected audio, and a form of a speaker to produce the desired audio information in amplified form.
The figures are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise form disclosed. It should be understood that the invention can be practiced with modification and alteration, and that the invention be limited only by the claims and the equivalents thereof.